Charles Spencer Chaplin, or ‘Charlie’ for short, is one of the most influential figures in the history of entertainment, as a Hollywood pioneer and, arguably, its greatest superstar. Not only do his films endure the test of time, with six of his movies selected for preservation in the National Film Registry, including The Gold Rush, Modern Times and The Great Dictator (the first anti-Nazi film, made before the U.S. had entered the Second World War), but Chaplin himself is almost as recognizable today as he was at the height of his fame.

Even people who have never seen a Chaplin film (which is most people) recognize his name, his signature walk and the look of his most popular character: the Little Tramp. They have a mental image of a little fellow with a toothbrush mustache, bowler hat and cane. Therefore it’s easy to understand that he’s had a huge impact on his adopted home. Charles Chaplin’s Los Angeles is today’s LA, since he was one of its creators, and if you know where to look you can still see it, just beneath the city’s surface.

In this article I’ll give you a brief(ish) bio of Chaplin, and then list eight locations in Los Angeles where he either lived, worked, played, or which he owned.

Early Life in London

In the end, everything is a gag.

Charles Chaplin

Chaplin was born in a working-class neighborhood of London, England, on April 16, 1889. He and his elder half-brother Sydney, or Syd, spent their childhoods in and out of workhouses due to the complications of mental illness suffered by their mother, a music hall (vaudeville) singer and performer. Their father, also a stage performer, was an infamous drunkard, abandoning them shortly after Charlie was born and never returning. 

Left with no one to support him, sometimes homeless and alone on the unforgiving streets of Victorian London, Chaplin had to make a living and was determined to do so in show business, like his parents and brother. His first job, in 1897, was with a clog dancing troupe called Eight Lancashire Lads.

Aged sixteen years old he also worked as an actor, taking a small but important role in a stage production of Sherlock Holmes, in London’s West End. The play was written by author Arthur Conan Doyle himself and was a huge success.

Later he worked with a vaudeville troupe called Casey’s Court Circus where he was discovered by Fred Karno, who would give him his first big break: playing a comic drunk in the show A Night in an English Music Hall. Although many think of Chaplin as a clown, the act was what we would consider slapstick sketch comedy, with dialogue.

It became a very popular part of the evening’s entertainment and the act made Chaplin a vaudeville star, ultimately bringing him to the United States for the first time in 1910. 

Charles Chaplin Moves to Los Angeles

While touring the comic drunk act (known qs the ‘inebriate swell’ in the playbill) for a second time with Fred Karno’s traveling company, Chaplin came to the attention of movie producer Mack Sennett of Keystone Films. Sennett offered Chaplin a contract for the then high rate of $150 per week (twice what he was making in the theater).

The film industry as such was very new, and the concept of becoming a movie star just didn’t exist. No one had done it at that point. The flickers were already very popular, but the films themselves could be very rough and ready, and there were no film credits, so no one knew who the actors in the movies were anyway.

The new industry had only just begun to colonize the western neighborhoods of Los Angeles, including the recently annexed Hollywood, having moved there from New York and New Jersey over the previous couple of years. In fact, although Chaplin had been to California before, having spent time in San Francisco with Karno’s show on the previous tour in 1912 (when he first met Sid Grauman), he didn’t know LA.

On top of all that Chaplin wasn’t that impressed with Keystone, believing its movies to be:

A crude mélange of rough and rumble…

… (but) it would mean a new life.

Charles Chaplin

Keystone: the Little Tramp Is Born

Arriving in Los Angeles in early December 1913, Chaplin lived at a hotel in downtown and spent the first few weeks of his time here learning the film-making ropes at Keystone’s studio in today’s Echo Park (back then it was known as Edendale).

Edendale was a fast-growing subiub of LA at the time, and the Keystone lot had been a farm (the main entrance was the front door of the old farmhouse). Most of the company’s films were madcap improvised one-reel situational comedies (like their Keystone Cops series) that always ended in a chase, so Sennett could film a short in an afternoon. Think of them as 5-10 minute Youtube videos.

Chaplin finally got his chance to impress in a supporting role at the end of January, 1914, in a film called Mabel’s Strange Predicament, with Keystone’s leading lady Mabel Normand. It was at this point that Chaplin created the iconic look of the Little Tramp, who would make so much movie history. If ever there was a right place/right time moment this was it.

Chaplin hurried to the wardrobe department to find a funny looking costume for the character himself, there was no costume designer, as there would be now – and no script either. He looked around at the racks of clothing. Luckily, inspiration was forthcoming.

I wanted everything to be a contradiction: the pants baggy, the coat tight, the hat small and the shoes large … I added a small moustache, which, I reasoned, would add age without hiding my expression. I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the makeup made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked on stage he was fully born.

Charles Chaplin

Funnily enough, the pants had belonged to the much larger Fatty Arbuckle, another rising comedic actor in the flickers who would go on to have enormous success (and be involved in huge controversy).

Although Mabel’s Strange Predicament is considered the first film with the Little Tramp, it was actually a movie that was filmed later the same week that introduced the world to him. On that day, Chaplin was told to go to the Venice motor racing circuit with a film crew to improvise something that could be turned into a one reel comedy short,

What emerged from the footage at the track was a six minute film, released a couple of days before Mabel’s Strange Predicament, about a boisterous and bumptious loafer, who keeps trying to bomb a film being made by a crew about the race. As other racegoers watch on in bemusement and amusement It’s an incredibly modern concept, something you might see on SNL, about a news show at the Indy 500 being constantly interrupted by an overly inebriated racegoer (played by one of the regular cast). But audiences at the time hadn’t seen that blend of real life and comedy.

Released on February 7, 1914, Kid Auto Races in Venice was a huge hit and a reviewer raved:

(In) our opinion the Keystone Company (has) made the capture of their career… Chaplin is a born screen comedian; he does things we have never seen done on the screen before.

The Cinema

When Mabel’s Strange Predicament came out two days later it was also a hit. and many reviews singled out Chaplin:

We do not often indulge in prophecy, but we do not think we are taking a great risk in prophesying that in six months Chaplin will rank as one of the most popular screen performers in the world.

Exhibitor’s Mail

It’s hardly surprising that Chaplin would turn to his own life experience for ideas, and undoubtedly his childhood, spent trying to survive as a homeless child in London, infused the character of the Little Tramp (as he would become known). As well as elements of the inebriate swell. The Tramp would become a kind of down on his luck, transient, everyman, able to find fun and humor in even the most undignified and humiliating circumstances.

Chaplin Takes Control of His Career

Nevertheless, Chaplin frequently clashed with Sennett and Normand (although she did also support Chaplin with Sennett). One day in April, feeling that he’d made a mistake in hiring Chaplin, Sennett decided to fire him. However, fate intervened and that very night Sennett received several cables from exhibitors asking for more Chaplin films. The following morning, instead of firing him, Sennett offered to allow Chaplin to direct his next film. It was a smart move.

Released in May, Caught in the Rain was hugely successful – and the rest is history. Soon exhibitors wanted twice as many prints of Chaplin’s films, in comparison with others made by Keystone (one movie grossing over $100,000 in its first year on a $1,800 budget) Thereafter Chaplin wrote and directed almost all of his films, developing the Tramp into the iconic character that it would become.

Chaplin ended up making no less than thirty-six films with Sennett at Keystone Studios, but what was most significant about his time there was that Chaplin decided to distinguish himself from the rest of the stable of actors by playing just one character in most of those movies. His films would be about that character and his adventures, not about stock characters in funny situations.

Unfortunately for Sennett he lost his star performer at the end of the year, when he decided that Chaplin’s request for a new contract at $1,000 per week was too high. Doh! It’s gone down in lore as one of the worst mistakes in Hollywood history.

The original main building of Keystone Studios, the first fully-enclosed movie studio in Los Angeles, is still standing at ​​1712 Glendale Boulevard .

Chaplin Becomes a Star

In 1915 Chaplin was offered $1,250 a week (and a $10,000 signing bonus) by Essanay Studios, and his more than thirty films with them made him a cultural phenomenon. Not only were the films massively popular, but also shops began carrying Chaplin merchandise (the first example of merchandising), songs were written about him, and he regularly appeared in cartoons, comic strips and in the new movie magazines. “Chaplinitis” had fully taken hold.

He was adored by critics and audiences, across all demographics – young and old, male and female, rich, poor and those in the middle. He was the first star to be able to do that. It turned out comedy was universally enjoyed. His arrival in Los Angeles had coincided with the widespread adoption of pre-film credits, so literally overnight he became hugely, internationally, famous.

Chaplin then went to work for Mutual Studios, where he made some of his most famous and highly regarded short films such as One A.M., The Cure, and The Adventurer to name a few. At twenty-six years old, just three years after leaving vaudeville, he was now the most famous person alive and the highest paid entertainer there had ever been (an undreamt of $670,000 per annum).

The terms of his contract were widely reported in the press and the public was shocked at the sums involved, but the president of Mutual reassured them with admirable confidence:

We can afford to pay Mr Chaplin this large sum annually because the public wants Chaplin – and will pay for him.

John Freuler

Superstardom

Incredibly, he went even further with his next contract to create eight films for the new First National Exhibitor’s Circuit, which was for the sum total of $1.2 million. He signed what was the first personal million dollar contract in history, in June 1917.

His brother had negotiated the bumper contract and he insisted that the main thing that Chaplin wanted was more time and resources, so he could make better movies.

Charlie (must) be allowed all the time he needs and all the money for producing (films) the way he wants … It is quality, not quantity, we are after.

Sydney Chaplin

So new was this company that they had no production studios in Los Angeles, therefore Chaplin decided to build his own, right in the heart of Hollywood. It’s one of the reasons that Hollywood became the center of the fledgling industry, instead of one of Los Angeles’ numerous other neighborhoods, many of which also had film production facilities.

His first film with First National, A Dog’s Life, was a massive commercial hit. Critics too were enraptured with his development of the Tramp into a more complex and interesting character. One has since described the movie as:

Cinema’s first total work of art

Louis Delluc

Bond Tour

Chaplin then went on a national tour of the U.S. with Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford (two other Hollywood megastars) to promote the sale of War Bonds, raising money for the Allies then engaged in fighting the First World War. They were mobbed wherever they went, drawing a crowd estimated at 250,000 people when they appeared on Wall Street in New York.

They’re believed to have raised $180,000,000, a phenomenal sum and the first sign of the immense power which Hollywood could wield. It was a harbinger of what we would consider the power of celebrity, something which had never been seen before, but that resonates today more than ever.

After that Chaplin made Shoulder Arms, in which the Tramp has to fight in the trenches of the Western Front. Although many in Hollywood worried about how the public would receive a comedy war film, when Chaplin himself was living the life of a movie star in Los Angeles, the film was another smash hit. Many soldiers actually thought it captured the surreal insanity of trench warfare better than many other, more serious, movies.

Movie Moguldom

After completing his contract for First National, Chaplin joined fellow film artists Pickford and Fairbanks (who had all become good friends since the bond tour), with director D W Griffith, to form United Artists, in 1919. This was a seismic development, as it meant that the stars would control all aspects of their films, they wouldn’t even need to go to producers for money or distribution. They had their own film studio.

Interestingly, that development has remained a one-off. No other stars since then have ever had the level of power and control over their careers that Pickford, Fairbanks and Chaplin had at that time. I would argue that no star since then has ever reached the level of fame and popularity that they had either.

The three stars were at the summit of the pyramid of fame. With their own studio, their neighboring mansions in Beverly Hills, and each with a succession of hit movies. LA during this period was very much Charles Chaplin’s Los Angeles.

Charles Chaplin’s Los Angeles: the Making of the City

Chaplin also funded many projects around Los Angeles during this period, being one of the original investors in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and the TCL Chinese Theatre. Later also contributing to the cost of construction of the Los Angeles Theatre, on downtown’s Broadway.

Unfortunately even he wasn’t able to make the most of every opportunity that came his way during those years. Later recounting the time a real estate investor begged him to invest $250,000 in a development on the West Side, which Chaplin turned down. Only a few weeks later oil was discovered underneath the land, meaning his investment would have been worth $50 million. You win some, you lose some.

Chaplin’s and Hollywood’s Golden Age

Some of Chaplin’s greatest and most enduring work was created during the 1920’s and 30’s, including, The Kid, The Gold Rush, The Circus, City Lights and his last film as the Tramp, Modern Times, in 1936.

By that point the silent era was well and truly over, but Chaplin could not bring himself to have the little fellow speak, reasoning that every audience member heard the character in their own way, in their head, and he didn’t want to spoil their illusions by giving him just his own voice.

Chaplin Speaks

For his first sound film Chaplin could not have picked a more difficult to achieve subject – a satirical comedy about Adolf Hitler, who had just started a second global conflagration, barely twenty years after the last one. He would only be able to attempt such a project because he owned United Artists and therefore had complete artistic freedom. Chaplin began filming the same month the war began, in September 1939.

Chaplin had become fascinated by, and very concerned about, Hitler since the early 1930’s. They were born only four days apart and the small mustache of Hitler’s had provoked humorous comparisons with the Tramp. His son described how Chaplin had become haunted by the superficial similarities between the Führer and himself.

Their destinies were poles apart. One was to make millions weep, while the other was to set the whole world laughing. Dad could never think of Hitler without a shudder, half of horror, half of fascination. “Just think”, he would say uneasily, “he’s the madman, I’m the comic. But it could have been the other way around.

Charles Chaplin Jr

Although the film’s concept was highly controversial Chaplin was determined to press ahead.

I was determined to go ahead, for Hitler must be laughed at!

Charles Chaplin

The Great Dictator, which came out in 1940, presaged the evils of fascism, especially antisemitism, and Hitler, helping move opinion in the United States towards accepting the need to enter the fight against the Nazi’s. And most incredibly he did it with a hit comedy, that was the most successful of his career. At the end of the movie Chaplin makes a moving plea for peace, and it’s usually believed to be Chaplin himself speaking the words.

The New York Times film critic declared it to be:

A truly superb accomplishment by a truly great artist… perhaps the most significant film ever produced.

Bosley Crowther

According to one source Hitler did watch the movie twice, entirely alone, but history doesn’t record his thoughts on it (which surely would be fascinating to know). Chaplin later said that he would never have been able to make the movie if he had known at the time of the horrors of the Nazi regime.

Nevertheless, The Great Dictator has proved hugely influential, inspiring films like Dr Strangelove, by Stanley Kubrick, Life is Beautiful, Inglourious Basterds, by Quentin Tarantino, and Jojo Rabbit.

However his political positions, including supporting the U.S. entry into the war, managed to ruffle a lot of feathers, including those of the newly installed FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. Isolationism was still strong in the U.S. at the time.

A New Era

For the next few years Chaplin was caught up in a scandal involving a young actress Carol Ann Barry, with whom he was in a relationship for a period of time. She had a daughter in 1943, after they had separated, that Barry said was fathered by the unmarried Chaplin and she sued him in a paternity suit.

In fact tests later showed that the girl was not his child, but the trials and attendant bad publicity seemed to sour the public on him, as well as consuming much of his energy for several years.

It wasn’t until early 1946 that he started work on a new film, a black comedy called Monsieur Verdoux. When the movie came out the following year it was a surprising flop though, the first to star Chaplin himself. Perhaps the plot, which involves a middle-aged man gleefully killing a succession of widows for their money, was a little too much for audiences that year. Certainly the film, from an original script by Orson Welles, is a fascinating and entertaining one, which has since been reassessed (it has a 97% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes!).

His next project had a very autobiographical feel. taking Chaplin back to his London music hall days, with a story about an aging failing comedian, and a young ballerina he ends up helping. Calvero, the washed-up stand-up, who had once been very popular, felt even more personal to Chaplin, as he too felt that he had lost his audience. Buster Keaton plays a small role as Chaplin’s stage partner, and Limelight is the only time the two legendary film comedians ever appeared on screen together.

Charles Chaplin Leaves Los Angeles

By the early 1950’s the U.S. was in the grip of McCarhtyism, and was paranoid about “reds under the bed”. Chaplin was suspected of being a communist (although he wasn’t). Many in Hollywood were being blacklisted, careers and lives were being ruined, based solely on rumor and innuendo. Unfortunately for Chaplin, he’d never become a U.S. citizen.

Leaving Los Angeles for the premiere of Limelight in London, Chaplin had a premonition that he wouldn’t see LA again. Indeed the day after leaving the U.S., on September 19, 1952, his re-entry permit was revoked by the United States Attorney General. Charles Chaplin’s Los Angeles was no more.

Unable to respond, due to the fact that most of his assets and properties were in the U.S., including United Artists and his studios in Hollywood, Chaplin released Limelight. Unfortunately the movie was subject to boycotts in the U.S., although it was quite successful in Europe and elsewhere. Now it’s considered a masterpiece (although it is a bit talky, ironically).

Exile in Europe

It later turned out that the U.S. Government acted illegally in its actions, but in any case Chaplin felt rejected by his adopted home. He would not set foot in the U.S. again for twenty years, living the remainder of his days in Switzerland, at the Château Manoir de Ban, overlooking the beautiful and peaceful Lake Geneva.

He returned only once to the United States, in 1972, in order to receive an honorary Academy Award for “the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century”. At the ceremony, Chaplin received a twelve-minute standing ovation, by far the longest in the Academy’s history. 

Charlie Chaplin died on Christmas morning, 1977, at the age of eighty-eight years old, leaving behind his widow Oona O’Neill, daughter of legendary American playwright Eugene O’Neill, and eleven children. His estate was worth more than $100 million, an astonishing sum considering that Chaplin hadn’t made a movie for ten years, or had a hit movie for nearly forty years

Chaplin’s life and career was full of scandal and controversy, from paternity suits to political battles to his dead body being held for ransom (a story for its own article). However, his legacy is his work. As Chaplin was fond of saying:

If you want to understand me, just watch my movies.

Chaplin’s Influence

Do you know Mickey Mouse? Most people do, but they may not know that the character’s design in 1928 was heavily influenced by the Tramp. Walt Disney later said:

We wanted something appealing, and we thought of a tiny bit of a mouse that would have something of the wistfulness of Chaplin … a little fellow trying to do the best he could.

It’s an example of how Chaplin, and the Tramp, have seeped their way into popular culture, often under the surface, but always there, hiding in plain sight. Also note that Disney referred to Chaplin as the inspiration, not the character of the Little Tramp, it’s a great example of how the two became intertwined in people’s minds, Chaplin was the Little Tramp, and the Little Tramp was Chaplin.

It’s no exaggeration to say that every comedy film or TV show you’ve ever seen was influenced by Chaplin, since he was so important in the development of the genre. He was the first to bring moments of drama and pathos into a comedy, prior to him film comedy was more a succession of gags, tied together with a very simple plot. He gave his comedies a clear, and often more complex, narrative.

Chaplin also wove social commentary into his comedies, such as with The Immigrant, The Kid and Modern Times. That had never really been done before, but it’s almost obligatory now. It’s one of the main reasons that his films always remain so relevant.

Nevertheless, more than anything the Tramp somehow seemed to represent the indomitable human spirit to audiences. Almost always picking himself up after whatever horrendous misfortune has befallen him, and walking off hopefully into the sunset, ready for new adventures, at the end of his movies.

Chaplin played the Tramp in no less than sixty films, the vast majority of his on-screen appearances, but none of those films were technically sequels. Each movie is its own story, a different adventure in the life of this down-on-his-luck vagrant. Also the character developed over time: from being a sometimes mean-spirited and brutish imp in his early appearances, to later being someone of whom Oscar Wilde might have said that, though he was in the gutter, he was always looking up at the stars.

All big movie-stars become associated with their most popular characters, because those are the ones that somehow suit the actor the most. It’s why George Clooney is most successful playing a charming roué and Tom Cruise is highly popular in action movies (he seems to be something of an adrenaline junkie in real life).

However, that’s even more the case with Chaplin, since he played the same character so many times, and he always remained so popular (as the Tramp). There were no inferior sequels to muddy the waters. To most people Chaplin is the Tramp, the funny, and lucky, loafer who just happened to have his antics somehow recorded by a film crew – like with Kid Auto Races in Venice, his very first movie.

8 Locations: Charles Chaplin’s Los Angeles

Through the Little Tramp’s optimism, despite a world full of turmoil and chaos, Chaplin proposes that the human spirit has, and always will, endure, and today you can still see many of the places that Chaplin created, worked, and lived in during his time in Los Angeles.

The following eight locations are verifiably confirmed to have an important connection to Chaplin and his life, so why not step back into the classic silent era of Hollywood and visit them?

1. SANTA MONICA PIER

Opening in 1909 (to carry a sewage outlet), Santa Monica Pier and the surrounding beaches have long been an ocean-side getaway for Angelenos, including Chaplin. However, in addition to a sunny respite, Chaplin also used the pier as a filming location. The earliest film shot at here (even before its iconic ferris wheel opened) was Chaplin’s slapstick comedy Tillie’s Punctured Romance, in 1914. Adapted from the stage play Tillie’s Nightmare and directed by Sennett, this film is a rare chance to see Chaplin NOT playing the Tramp.

While this film was the first to use Santa Monica Pier, it was hardly the last. Chaplin himself returned to film The Circus there and hundreds of movies have used it as a backdrop to romantic walks, thrilling chases, roller coaster scenes and more. Today, you can enjoy carnival style games, restaurants, rides and fishing there, all the while enjoying Charles Chaplin’s Los Angeles.

2. JIM HENSON STUDIOS

No article about Charles Chaplin’s Los Angeles would be complete without a visit to the studio that Chaplin built for himself in 1917. The studio is located near the intersection of La Brea Avenue and Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. In 1969, the studio was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.

Chaplin had sold the studio in 1953, when it became Kling Studios and at various times was the Red Skelton Studios, the shooting location for the Adventures of Superman and Perry Mason television series’, and the headquarters of A&M Records, before becoming the home of the Jim Henson Company.

Jim Henson’s son, Brian Henson, noted at the time:

When we heard that the Chaplin lot was for sale, we had to have it. It’s the perfect home for the Muppets and our particular brand of classy, but eccentric entertainment.

Lisa Henson, Jim Henson’s daughter, said of the studio:

The buildings are a lovable hodge-podge of quirky, unusual spaces. There are unexpected elements in some of the offices like original vaults and fish tank-like bathrooms. It’s not your typical corporate space, but it’s ideal for the Muppets.

In 2000, after taking over the studios, the Henson Company unveiled a twelve-foot statue of Kermit the Frog, dressed as Chaplin’s Little Tramp, above the studio’s main gate.

3. CHAPLIN-KEATON-LLOYD ALLEY

Want to see not one, but THREE classic silent movie sites all in one place? Look no further than an unnamed alley which is affectionately called Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Alley, running just south of Hollywood Boulevard between Cahuenga Boulevard and Cosmo Street.

This alley features prominently in Buster Keaton’s film Cops, Harold Lloyd’s iconic Safety Last!, and Chaplin’s heart-wrenching The Kid, each inducted into the National Film Registry as a work of cultural importance.

This is a must see spot to get a sense of Charles Chaplin’s Los Angeles. Check out this video for a few side-by-side comparisons of the alley from the silent movie era and today. The alley now has a plaque to commemorate the movies filmed here.

4. CHAPLIN COTTAGES, CHARLIE HOTEL AND NORMANDIE TOWERS

Charlie Chaplin had three clusters of cottages built in Hollywood throughout the 20’s and 30’s, each more adorable than the last. They’re reminiscent of quaint European villages, with crooked roofs, cobblestone walkways, shingles and stained glass. Chaplin had them built as living quarters for actors working at his studios on La Brea. They have all been purchased by private owners since then and have been refurbished into luxury hotels and living spaces.

The first is the Charlie Hotel, at 819 North Sweetzer Avenue, in West Hollywood. At over $300 a night, not every fan can lay down the cash, but if you do, you can stay in a suite called ‘the Charlie’, so-called because Chaplin himself lived in it for a period. You can even see two of the Little Tramp’s canes crossed above the fireplace for decor.

The next is Normandie Towers at 7219 Hampton Avenue in West Hollywood, which is another collection of cottages now owned by a private owner, but with some available to rent from time to time.

And, finally, what are simply known as the Chaplin Cottages, at 1330 N Formosa Avenue. Once homes to the likes of Judy Garland, John Barrymore, and Rudolph Valentino, these are now apartments for musicians and artists, most of whom have ghost stories they’d be happy to share with you, if you get the chance to sit down with them.

5. MUSSO & FRANK GRILL

At 6667 Hollywood Boulevard, Musso & Frank Grill is the oldest restaurant in Hollywood, opening in 1919. From the heyday of the silent era all the way up through today, celebrities have been seen frequenting this classic New York-style steakhouse. 

A well-known story relates that Chaplin once challenged Douglas Fairbanks to a horse-race down Hollywood Boulevard. The stakes? The loser would pay the check at Musso and Frank’s. According to legend Chaplin won the race, and with it the bet.

Chaplin regularly had lunch in what is called the restaurant’s Old Room, which  features a wood-fire grill and counter bar. Chaplin’s favorite spot was in the corner table by the window. His favorite dish? As notated on the menu today, it was grilled lamb kidney with bacon.

This is a must-do stop for any enthusiast interested in Charles Chaplin’s Los Angeles, as the great man spent many an evening there enjoying a meal and a few of their world-famous martinis, with his celebrity friends.

6. ALEXANDRIA HOTEL

The Alexandria Hotel opened in 1906 and was, believe it or not, once-upon a time the finest hotel in LA. The hotel would become legendary, hosting kings, presidents, statesmen and the silent-movie stars. This is a prime spot in Charles Chaplin’s Los Angeles, since he spent so much time here, including living in the hotel at different times in the 1910’s and 20’s.

The restaurant at the Alexandria became the natural meeting place for the leaders of the film industry and eventually became the studio commissary for the likes of Chaplin, Griffith, William Hart, Pickford and Fairbanks, who, during one of these lunches, made movie history in 1919, by announcing the official formation of their independent motion picture company: United Artists.

Charlie Chaplin was later married in the Palm Court Ballroom (where he was often to be found, at the dances) and even got into a fist-fight with MGM mogul Louis B Mayer, in the lobby, which allegedly ended with Mayer landing a punch so powerful that Chaplin flew into a potted plant. A perfect slapstick comedy moment in real life.

7. UNITED ARTISTS BUILDING AND LOS ANGELES THEATRE

Speaking of United Artists… The United Artists Building is a thirteen story Spanish Gothic style construction that was completed in 1927. It was modeled after the Cathedral of Segovia by architect C. Howard Crane. The incredibly beautiful, classic style movie palace inside the building was the flagship theater for United Artists for many years.

The theater seats 1,600 people, occupies three floors of the building and features murals from the early days of the film industry, as well as a ceiling dome with hundreds of crystal pendants. The building reopened as a hotel in 2015 and now has a rooftop bar and pool, with panoramic views of the city, and events are often held at the theater.

Chaplin considered City Lights his personal favorite, of all his films. It was the first movie he made during the sound era, and while he faced pressure to make it with dialogue, he decided not to because he didn’t want the Tramp to speak. This presented huge challenges. Chaplin had to reshoot the scene in which he buys a flower from the blind flower girl 342 times, as he could not find a satisfactory visual way of showing that she believed the Tramp to be a wealthy man.

Despite, or perhaps because of, these challenges, City Lights is widely regarded as Chaplin’s magnum opus and considered by many to be one of the greatest films of all time, at #11 on AFI’s top 100. It’s my personal favorite.

The film premiered on January 30, 1931, at the Los Angeles Theatre, a 2,000-seat movie palace a few blocks north of the United Artists Building on Broadway. Its lavish interior is said to mirror the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. Chaplin part-financed the theater’s construction, so that it would open in time for his premiere.

Albert Einstein and wife Elsa attended the lavish event, and when the house lights rose, the great comedian saw Einstein’s eyes tearing up at the final scene. You would think that would be a crowning moment for Chaplin, but in his autobiography he wrote that he didn’t think Einstein was so “sentimental”!

The Los Angeles Theatre was added to the National Register of Historic Places and designated a Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument in 1979.

8. LE PETIT PARIS

If you’re looking for a really nice meal, you can make reservations at Le Petit Paris on Spring Street in downtown. The restaurant offers exquisite French cuisine, however, you can just have a drink at the bar and take a look at what was then the lobby of the Stowell Hotel (which opened in 1913).

Another key location in Charles Chaplin’s Los Angeles, he lived here for six months when he first arrived in 1913. You can’t unfortunately go up to Chaplin’s old room, but it’s a great excuse to visit this beautiful spot.

Discover Charles Chaplin’s Los Angeles Today

Over a hundred years after Charles Chaplin first arrived in Los Angeles, the city he inhabited is still present all around us, if you know where to look. Visit some of these locations and take a trip back in time to the silent-movie days of Hollywood. Also take the opportunity to watch/rewatch some of his movies, they’re absolutely hilarious.

A great tour for discovering the old Hollywood of Charlie Chaplin is our Real Hollywood Tour, daily at 10 am. We also often stop in at Musso and Frank Grill on our Hollywood Speakeasy Bar tour, on Friday nights at 6 pm – and have a martini in his honor!

We have other articles showing the filming locations of famous movies shot in both downtown and Hollywood (including several of Chaplin’s). Take a look if you’re interested in learning more about exactly where many hugely popular Los Angeles movies were filmed.

This map is interactive. To open in Google Maps click the icon in the top right corner.

If you have any feedback on Charles Chaplin’s Los Angeles Today please email us or reach out on social media, we’d love to hear from you.

– By Mike Funt (Twitter) and Damien Blackshaw (Twitter)

• Mike Funt is an internationally recognized clown performer and director and Associate Artistic Director of the Clown School. The school organizes classes, workshops and theatrical productions throughout the year, please check their website for more information.